CBI man behind Mallya escape helped Nirav Modi, Choksi flee: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Sep 15: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that the CBI officer, who facilitated Mallya's escape by weakening the 'Look Out Notice' on him, was also in charge of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's escape plans.

Taking to twitter Rahul wrote: "Mr Sharma, who is an officer from Gujarat, the Prime Minister's home constituency, "is the PM's blue-eyed-boy in the CBI."

This comes a day after Rahul Gandhi alleged that Mallya's escape was aided by the CBI. He had accused the agency of changing the "detain" notice of him to "inform". The Congress chief had also alleged that the lookout notice could not be changed without the approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Gandhi scion had tweeted, "Mallya's Great Escape was aided by the CBI quietly changing the "Detain" notice for him, to "Inform". The CBI reports directly to the PM. It is inconceivable that the CBI, in such a high profile, controversial case, would change a lookout notice without the approval of the PM."

After Mallya's sensational claim about meeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before leaving, questions have been raised about the notice and why he was allowed to leave. Over the past two days, there has been non-stop sparring between the ruling BJP and the Congress, each accusing the other of proximity to Mallya.

Mallya has claimed that he met the finance minister to discuss settlement of his dues with banks, but Jaitley has called his statements false, and said the businessman, misusing his MP privileges, accosted him in parliament.